Geis Cos. formally becomes owner of Ameritrust complex

Cuyahoga County's ill-fated ownership of the former Ameritrust Corp. headquarters is history, as Streetsboro-based Geis Cos. this week became the owner of the complex, including the site of the proposed new consolidated county offices.
Geis, which plans a nearly $200 million project on the properties, was selected by the county last month as the buyer of the one-time bank headquarters complex in an intense competition for the purchase of the Ameritrust complex. Geis also won a separate competition to provide a new headquarters for 750 county employees. The intensely fought competition was managed by real estate broker CBRE Group as the county's consultant.
Cuyahoga County land records show multiple affiliates of Geis Cos., through a combination of deeds and leases, obtained control of the 29-story Ameritrust Tower at Euclid Avenue and East Ninth Street, the attached 1010 Euclid Avenue building and the so-called “P and H” buildings on the Prospect Avenue side of the complex. The transfers also included two county-owned garages on the south side of Prospect at East Ninth Street.
The P and H buildings will be razed and the site will become the home of a new, eight-story Cuyahoga County headquarters building under a lease that Cuyahoga County Council approved Jan. 22.
Deeds associated with the multiple transactions were signed Jan. 31 in County Executive Ed FitzGerald's name by his chief of staff, Matt Carroll, according to the land records.
Financing for at least a portion of the project already is in place.
Land records show Geis Cos. affiliates received a $22.5 million mortgage from Huntington National Bank and a $10 million mortgage from Piper Jaffray & Co., a Minneapolis-based investment banking concern. The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority also will provide financing for the project.
The records do not show sale prices paid for the properties, as the county does not pay conveyance fees on land transfers. However, Geis agreed to pay the county $26 million for the Ameritrust complex.
In an email late Wednesday, Greg Geis, one of the two brothers who run Geis Cos., said, “We are happy to have successfully completed the closing. This is the first step in a very complicated and exciting project for everyone at the Geis Cos.”
Looking to the future, Greg Geis added, “We look forward to redeveloping these properties into the marquee address they deserve.”
Geis will construct a 220,000-square-foot headquarters that the county will lease for 26 years. The county, under a prior form of government led by county commissioners, bought the complex in 2005.
The plan calls for creating 210 high-end apartments in the former office tower and part of the building at 1010 Euclid, although portions of the building will be retained as office space in case the county needs to expand in the future.
The county will shed additional properties in the future under Mr. FitzGerald's plan to reduce the county's real estate holdings.